London Day 1

Hey everyone! I started my trip bright and early this morning taking a 6:15am trip to Paris. I caught my Eurostar connection under the English Channel at 10:15 arriving around 11:30am local time. I left the train station and saw that I was close to King’s Crossing station so I decided to head over and see if I could see platform 9 ¾ which everyone knows is the platform to the Hogwarts Express. Unfortunately, I think I needed a train to ticket to get onto the platforms so I didn’t get to see that. But I went underground and took the tube about 15 minutes to the Fulham/Chelsea part of London where I am staying. Once off the tube, it took me about 15 minutes to find my hostel, which isn’t all that far from the station (about a 10 minute walk). Because I booked my hostel late, I’m kind of staying a little bit farther out of the main part of London, but I am just fine with that. After dropping my stuff off at the hostel, I immediately headed over visit Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea F.C. (my favorite EPL team) plays. It was really cool to visit the stadium and I really enjoyed the tour. I spoke with the two tour guides quite a bit about transfer rumors and it was cool to hear some of what they’ve been hearing. (They think Kaka is coming for sure, but who knows.) They also said that there was buzz going around because Abramovich was at the stadium while I was there, with possible developments on the new coach or transfer business. I think I might have seen his car too, an Aston Martin parked out front which was cool.  At the end of the tour, they dropped us off at the Megastore which I spent forever in. I walked all over the store making sure I got exactly what I wanted. I ended up getting two jackets, a jersey (Essien of course), a beanie, a scarf, and a poster. Let’s just say that this will be my only souvenir shopping for myself. 

After Stamford Bridge, I headed out to Westminster where I saw Big Ben, the Parliament Building, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye. They are all really close together off the Thames River. I spent several hours over in this area just looking around and admiring the views. I didn’t go into any of the places because they were all so expensive and I was just content seeing them from the outside. Each of them cost around 18-20 pounds which is around $30 so it doesn’t bother me not seeing them and saving money. I also walked 15-20 minutes down the river and saw the London Bridge which was a cool site.

Most of the day I had my headphones in and just listened to music while walking around the city. I also downloaded several Breakaway and Ignite podcasts which I got to listen to. I think I actually listened to about 7 hours of podcasts from my train ride and walking throughout the day. It’s been real nice to do whatever I wanted (like in Paris) without following a large group around. Tomorrow I think I’m going to see Buckingham Palace and the Museum of Natural History, so I’ll update everyone again tomorrow!

Jonathan